François Bayrou, head of the French government, entered the gates of the Élysée Palace shortly before 1:30 p.m. to meet with Emmanuel Macron.
Emmanuel Macron acknowledged the MPs' refusal to give him their confidence on Monday evening and promised to name his successor in the next few days. A nomination that could take place as early as Tuesday - it's possible, according to sources close to the head of state - the name of Sébastien Lecornu, already the favorite in December before François Bayrou won, is making a comeback.
🇫🇷 French PM François #Bayrou has arrived at the #Élysée Palace to tender his resignation to President Emmanuel #Macron after losing yesterday’s #confidencevote.
— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) September 9, 2025
🎙️ FRANCE 24's @AKerrigan47 is on the ground with the latest
Xavier Bertrand, the LR president of Hauts-de-France, who was once mentioned, announced on Tuesday that he would not be appointed and clarified that Sébastien Lecornu is in the process of forming his own government during a meeting of his party's leaders, a participant told AFP. He will be the fifth head of government since the start of the five-year term in 2022.
Emergency before Let's block everything
There is an urgent need to appoint a Prime Minister because there must be no vacant power on the eve of the Block Everything movement and before the union mobilization on September 18, insisted outgoing Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, leader of the Les Républicains (LR) party, referring to a month conducive to all kinds of excesses.
According to those close to him, Emmanuel Macron prefers to give the keys to Matignon to a trusted personality.
Since Monday evening, the name of 39-year-old Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who has become a close friend of the head of state over time, has been repeatedly mentioned by Macron's supporters, with some sources at the Élysée Palace even reporting that the choice had been made. With the usual caution: the president had already wanted to appoint this loyalist in December, before François Bayrou imposed himself on him for the Prime Minister's post.
LIVE - Sébastien Lecornu on his way to Matignon? "He's making calls to us," confirms a left-wing figure https://t.co/AsbnkUNDPH
— RTL France (@RTLFrance) September 9, 2025
Catherine Vautrin's name is also mentioned, but the Minister of Labor and Health remains discreet, having also already experienced a U-turn at the Élysée Palace in 2022. On the left wing of Macron's party, the President of the Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, said on Tuesday that she was ready to go to Matignon to implement a possible coalition pact.
So many names that do not in themselves solve the equation: how to obtain, at the very least, a non-censorship from the Socialist Party, which is necessary to hold on? According to a regular interlocutor of Emmanuel Macron, the latter could this time accept that the Prime Minister, especially if he is a close friend, make real concessions to the Socialists, for example on the taxation of the richest, which until now has been a taboo for him.
Olivier Faure refused to say whether his party would negotiate with a figure from the presidential camp, continuing to claim power. The leader of the Greens, Marine Tondelier, urged the head of state to meet the leaders of the left-wing parties before making any decision.
Macronist Gabriel Attal, for his part, requested the prior appointment of a negotiator capable of verifying possible coalitions.
